Social events, seminars, workshops, breakfasts, lunches, meetings over coffee, after-hours events the list goes on. With the number of opportunities to network in any given week, you could spend two thirds of your available working time just meeting with people!

However, networking is usually only a piece of your overall marketing plan, so how do you make certain your networking hours are well spent?

Get realistic about how much time an event will take.

• Where is the meeting or event and at what time of day
• Will your trip there or back be during rush hour
• Do you need to get there early or stay late to be around when the networking really happens?

Heres a hypothetical but very realistic situation. Youve decided to attend a networking luncheon that also features a guest speaker. It will take you 20 minutes to get from your office to the event where youll spend just over two hours including the time youve built in for pre- and post-event networking. Then another 20 minutes back to your office. In total, this event took about three hours out of your day and only a small portion of that time was free for networking.

Do you have that kind of time to waste? Probably not. Productive networking is planned networking. Whether you will have 10 minutes or two hours to mingle, make the time count.

Before you go, do your homework, know what you want to achieve, and have a plan.

• The motto of successful networkers is givers get. Be prepared to listen and see what you can do for people you connect with. Hogging the conversation is worse than not networking at all because then rather than having no impression about you they have a bad impression about you.
• If you are having a one-on-one meeting to network, allot a certain amount of time and stick to it. At the beginning of the meeting let the other person know how much time you have set aside. Have a clear idea of what you want to take away from that meeting.
• For a large gathering plan your elevator speech well ahead of time. Nothing is more tedious than someone who needs 10 minutes to explain what they do. Get it down to a minute or less and focus on what results you help your clients achieve. If the listener is interested, theyll ask for more information.
• Is it more important for you to hand out all of your business cards or make a solid connection with one or two people? Usually quality, not quantity, is preferable.

Networking is an important marketing tool for any size business and being a productive networker can make a significant impact in your bottom line results.